College Roundup: Terps claim top spot in Big Ten soccer poll

MARYLAND MEN'S SOCCER: The Big Ten Conference announced its 2015 men's soccer preseason coaches poll and players to watch list on Wednesday, with Maryland claiming the top spot among the nine conference teams.

The Terrapins concluded the 2014 campaign with a 13-6-3 record (5-2-1 conference record), and claimed the Big Ten Championship and Tournament titles in their inaugural Big Ten season, while also advancing to the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. Maryland has advanced to the NCAA Tournament 32 times, including 20 of the past 21 seasons.

Indiana checked in at No. 2 in the preseason poll, followed by Penn State at No. 3, Michigan State at No. 4 and Ohio State at No. 5.

In addition, seniors Mael Corboz and Tsubasa Endoh and junior Chris Odoi-Atsem were tabbed to the Big Ten Players to Watch list.

ST. MARY'S MEN'S LACROSSE: Scott Devine, St. Mary's College of Maryland director of athletics & recreation, announced Wednesday morning the appointment of Jason Childs as the next Seahawk head men's lacrosse coach, effective Tuesday, August 25.

This is Childs first NCAA Division III head coaching opportunity after leading several NCAA Division I and Division II programs over the last 10 years. He becomes the program's 10th head coach in the 42-year history of St. Mary's men's lacrosse.

The Baltimore native comes to southern Maryland following three years as the head coach at Division II Shorter University in Rome, Georgia. Never experiencing a losing season at Shorter, Childs led the Hawks to an 8-7 record in 2015 – the program's first year as a full-fledged member of the NCAA – while the man-down defensive unit ranked eighth in NCAA.

NAVY WOMEN'S TENNIS: Navy women's tennis coach Keith Puryear has announced the program's six-member incoming Class of 2019. The class is ranked as the 15th-best NCAA Division I Mid-Major class by TennisRecruiting.net.

Anastasia Kondrasov was ranked as high as a five-star recruit by TennisRecruiting.net and Catalina Rico, Kellyn Abbanat and Josie Rogers received four-star rankings. The class is rounded out by a pair of three-star recruits in Carlee Conway and Sabrina Jiang.

This is the fifth time Puryear has had a recruiting class appear in the TennisRecruiting.net Mid-Major rankings.

UMBC MEN'S SOCCER: The UMBC men's soccer team have been tabbed as America East co-favorites, along with the University of Hartford, in the 2015 preseason coaches' poll, the conference office announced Tuesday afternoon. The voting was conducted by the conference's eight head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams. UMBC has won back-to-back America East regular season and tournament championships. The Retrievers have captured three consecutive and four of the league's last five tourney titles, earning NCAA berths in those years.